Permian plume beneath Tarim from receiver functions

Receiver functions for the central Tien Shan and northern Tarim in central Asia reveal a pronounced depression on the 410 km discontinuity beneath the Permian basalts in Tarim. The depression may be caused by elevated temperature. The striking spatial correlation between the anomaly of the MTZ and the Permian basalts suggests that both may be effects of the same plume. This relation can be reconciled with the possible motion of Tarim on the order of 1000 km by assuming that the mantle layer, which has moved coherently with the plate since the Permian, extends to a depth of 410 km or more. Alternatively, the lithosphere and underlying mantle are decoupled at a depth of ∼ 200 km, but a cumulative effect of the Tarim plate motion since the Permian is less by an order of magnitude. A similar explanation is applicable to the Siberian traps.

Taking Stock

This chapter considers some general issues about the nature of the account that is emerging. It asks whether moral reasoning should have been treated as it was in Chapter 5. It also askes whether an explanation of practical reasons by appeal to value could be mirrored by a similar explanation of theoretical reasoning if one thinks of truth as a value. One might also think of the probability of a belief as a respect in which it is of value. The chapter ends by introducing the idea of a focalist account, and maintains that the account offered of practical reasoning is focalist.

Permian plume beneath Tarim from receiver functions

Receiver functions for the central Tien Shan and northern Tarim in central Asia reveal a pronounced depression on the 410-km discontinuity beneath the Permian basalts in Tarim. The depression may most likely be caused by elevated temperature. The striking spatial coherence between the anomaly of the MTZ and the Permian basalts suggests that both may be effects of the same plume. This relation can be reconciled with reconstructed positions of paleo-continents since the Permian by assuming that the mantle layer which translated coherently with the Tarim plate extended to a depth of 410 km or more. Alternatively, lithosphere and the underlying mantle are decoupled at a depth of ~ 200 km, but a cumulative effect of the Tarim plate motions since the Permian is by an order of magnitude less than predicted by the paleo-reconstructions. A similar explanation is applicable to the Siberian traps.

Why Are FGM Copulas Successful? A Simple Explanation

One of the most computationally convenient nonredundant ways to describe the dependence between two variables is by describing the corresponding copula. In many applications, a special class of copulas—known as FGM copulas—turned out to be most successful in describing the dependence between quantities. The main result of this paper is that these copulas are the fastest to compute, and this explains their empirical success. As an auxiliary result, we also show that a similar explanation can be given in terms of fuzzy logic.

Ger. erbarmen and the unpredictable OHG prefix bi-

ABSTRACTAlthough it has long been recognized that the i of OHG gi-could be lost before vowels and certain consonants, the handbooks recognize no loss of i in bi-. This is one reason why many scholars are reluctant to derive OHG irbarmên from *ir-bi-armên and irbunnan from *ir-bi-unnan, instead positing an original prefix ab- and comparing semantically similar forms such as OE ofearmian. In fact, however, loss of i in hi-, though highly sporadic, is attested before vowels and before r and l from the 8th century on, and provides a basis for the etymology of two hitherto unexplained words in Notker: ferbrasên and prázelig. There are thus clear parallels for a similar explanation of irbarmên and irbunnan.

A Test of Paleomagnetism as a Correlation and Dating Technique in the New Madrid Seismic Zone

In order to assess the use of paleomagnetic directions of liquefied sands for correlating and dating paleoseismic events, I studied historic liquefaction deposits in the New Madrid seismic zone to verify their ability to record the ambient geomagnetic field direction at the time of liquefaction. Erupted sand from the 1811–1812 New Madrid events are shown to have a remanent magnetic direction in agreement with the field direction recorded in St. Louis in 1819. There is a large variation in the magnetic quality between two adjacent erupted sand layers. These beds show identical magnetic composition and sand grain-size. Lacking a magnetic explanation for their differing behavior, turbulent forces or deformation causing signal degradation during reliquefaction are the preferred explanation. A similar explanation is also suggested for the poor magnetic quality of an injected dike that is coarser-grained, but magnetically identical to the erupted sands.

Thématicité et Possessivité en Roumain

It is well known that syntactic configurations such as active vs passive are not interchangeable in all contexts and that they can be interpreted adequately only within the framework of the discourse. It is our contention that precisely the same phenomenon underlies the way in which possession is expressed in Romanian, and we argue that Romanian exploits the possibility of two distinct predicative relationships in this respect: "Possessor possesses possessum" and "possessum belongs to Possessor". A similar explanation is given for the choice between lui and sau with a third person Possessor, a fact of Romanian grammar not hitherto understood.

Unidirectional inhibition and activation of ‘malic’ enzyme of Solanum tuberosum by meso-tartrate

A kinetic study of ‘malic’ enzyme (EC 1.1.1.40) from potato suggests that the mechanism is Ordered Bi Ter with NADP+ binding before malate, and NADPH binding before pyruvate and HCO3-. The analysis is complicated by the non-linearity that occurs in some of the plots. meso-Tartrate is shown to inhibit the oxidative decarboxylation of malate but to activate the reductive carboxylation of pyruvate. To explain these unidirectional effects it is suggested that the control site of ‘malic’ enzyme binds organic acids (including meso-tartrate) which activate the enzyme. meso-Tartrate, however, competes with malate for the active site and thus inhibits the oxidative decarboxylation of malate. Because meso-tartrate does not compete effectively with pyruvate for enzyme-NADPH, its binding at the control site leads to a stimulation of the carboxylation of pyruvate. A similar explanation is advanced for the observation that malic acid stimulates its own synthesis.

Thinking and Performance

The explanation of change or movement has always been a central concern of philosophers. Some, like Aristotle, have taken the movement of living things as their paradigm, and tried to explain all movement or change in that way. Others, after the fashion of Descartes, concentrate on the movement of inanimate things and generalise explanations of this to encompass all movement or change. For Aristotle, things have a principle of growth, organisation and movement in their own right. The movement or change of a natural thing is explained by its tendency to move in that way. The line he draws is not, as the line which we would perhaps like to draw is, between organic and inorganic things, but between these grouped together as subject to the same kind of explanation and, on the other hand, artificial things. A problem that results from this division is that while it might seem plausible to explain changes which occur in a baby when it grows into a man by saying that babies naturally tend to grow into men, and if they do not then something has interfered with their natural development, it seems odd to treat inorganic things in this way. Restricted to the contrast between the natural and the artificial, the explanation of stones falling when unsupported is clearly going to provide some difficulty. Although it is true that Aristotle does not think that because in the case of man the form with which matter is formed to make that substance is called a soul, that therefore any kind of form joined with matter to make a substance is called a soul, nevertheless the explanation of things which are a combination, a natural combination, of form and matter is the same for both man and other substances. Confronted with the explanation of falling bodies in this way, it first of all seems implausible and then suggests that things should happen which in fact do not. If it is assumed that the principle of movement is in the stone, ought it not to be assumed that the principle of stopping is in it too? Babies grow into men because it is in their nature to do so perhaps, but that stones fall downwards because it is in their nature to do so has, as Molière noticed in the case of a similar explanation of why opium puts you to sleep, a hollow ring.

Thinking and Performance

The explanation of change or movement has always been a central concern of philosophers. Some, like Aristotle, have taken the movement of living things as their paradigm, and tried to explain all movement or change in that way. Others, after the fashion of Descartes, concentrate on the movement of inanimate things and generalise explanations of this to encompass all movement or change. For Aristotle, things have a principle of growth, organisation and movement in their own right. The movement or change of a natural thing is explained by its tendency to move in that way. The line he draws is not, as the line which we would perhaps like to draw is, between organic and inorganic things, but between these grouped together as subject to the same kind of explanation and, on the other hand, artificial things. A problem that results from this division is that while it might seem plausible to explain changes which occur in a baby when it grows into a man by saying that babies naturally tend to grow into men, and if they do not then something has interfered with their natural development, it seems odd to treat inorganic things in this way. Restricted to the contrast between the natural and the artificial, the explanation of stones falling when unsupported is clearly going to provide some difficulty. Although it is true that Aristotle does not think that because in the case of man the form with which matter is formed to make that substance is called a soul, that therefore any kind of form joined with matter to make a substance is called a soul, nevertheless the explanation of things which are a combination, a natural combination, of form and matter is the same for both man and other substances. Confronted with the explanation of falling bodies in this way, it first of all seems implausible and then suggests that things should happen which in fact do not. If it is assumed that the principle of movement is in the stone, ought it not to be assumed that the principle of stopping is in it too? Babies grow into men because it is in their nature to do so perhaps, but that stones fall downwards because it is in their nature to do so has, as Molière noticed in the case of a similar explanation of why opium puts you to sleep, a hollow ring.